Serious faith for misfits, lousy joiners, and other homesick souls
Good Strange: The Politics of Resurrection
It is strange, even for my own conscience, to use a phrase like âthe Politics of Resurrectionâ given how much damage and evil the wedding of false religion and the state has inflicted on vulnerable people lately.
That is precisely why today I have to use it, why I have to write this. I want to offer you something strange and hopeful on this Easter Sunday in a not-strange-enough time of darkness
Some time in the late nineties I was going through one of the worse depressions of my life. It wasnât one of those depressive episodes where you try to hide what is going on. I had a resigned sort of exhibitionism. Why not spill all my beans? Beans just end up getting spilt eventually anyway⌠It was dark. People would walk by and ask, âHow are you today Doug?â and immediately regret it as I answered them honestly and talked them through the vast landscape of my existential angst. It was usually met with one of four responses, that were for me both a source of dark entertainment, my own gothic improv stage. Here are the four things people would most often do:
I suppose that it behooves a Christian man, from time to time, to give a plain and simple account of his faith.  I canât tell you that I am feeling particularly inspired to do so in this moment. Frankly, I find myself a little short on inspiration in general this evening and feel there are (what do we call them?), âpressing matters,â to take care of,  but it seems as good a time as any to say a thing or two about why this Good Friday is such a big deal and why I choose to build my life around the drama we see unfolding this and every Easter weekend from today and through the next fifty days of Easter. Tonight stands before me a simple and fair question to which I intend to give at least one good answer, âWhy, Doug, given all that Christianity seems to have evolved in to, do you bother calling yourself a Christian and carrying on like ya do?â
I plan to start with a short answer and then keep just keep writing till some of the pieces “Pull-to” as my Grandpa used to say. I am not promising exhaustive answers to this question or even several. I suppose that is why I keep a blog, There is a lot to be said about the life of faith that just takes time and more importantly, stories, to have light dawn of the whole life of faith in God. But, I will start by simply trying to provide an answer that is as short and as honest of an answer that I can provide:
I am a Christian because this is simply the most beautiful story I have ever known, and I want more than anything to be a part of it. Â
There are very few vices I have encountered as much in my own life – and in the lives of the people I have listened to and prayed with – as much as I have encountered resentment. What other of my own shortcomings have I nurtured and even protected like I do my grudges? Ever hear of anyone harboring gluttony or greed? Resentment seems to hold a very precious place in a lot of our lives and after a few years of trying to deal with it personally I think I have finally begun to understand why: It is delicious.
